Press & Reviews
Reviews for "The Hand of God"
Released October 2007
New hour-long mini album continues the on-going sonic adventures of the Alliance.
Less than a year after the album For the Grains of Sand, the East Lothian trio of Craig Smith, Doug Johnstone and
Viv Strachan, who make up Northern Alliance, release this new mini-album. It's a departure from the previous album in
that it is both more electronic and more delicate - in essence a return to the land and soundscapes which Northern
Alliance inhabit so well. And a wonderful, clear world it is. Each song has a tendency to start deceptively simply
with something like a just a guitar and a 'bleep' but they all build beautifully into, to paraphrase the title of track
4, fully fledged black swans, apparently gliding along on a wave of melody and harmony but close listening shows that
underneath is all action and motion. As with the previous album, these are quiet songs best listened to up loud. This
not only allows the crispness of the trebly guitars to shine but give a better insight as to how much intelligence
and craft have gone into these songs. The lyrics too are full of depth. The opening We Hit The Town Drinking detailing
the obsession with getting blootered but in a wistful, regretful way. Lest anyone shirk from the title track The Hand
of God, which is, as you may suspect, about the 1986 World Cup, this is a gentle song about nostalgia and hope. In fact,
hope and optimism run through this album like Blackpool Rock and even on a track called It's the Hope That Kills Us,
it is still "the hope that keeps us alive". This is a charming track stripped down to basically drum machines and
keyboards with hushed vocals over a solid wall of sound. The Good Black Swans also reeks of sanguinity and life. The
entire album has a beautiful, dreamlike quality which leaves the listener both moved and uplifted.
KM, Maverick Magazine [4/5]
Between slow clicking drum machines, peeling keys and hazy intertwining melodies, there’s tales of culturally institutionalised boozing, the nation’s curious relationship with hope and, naturally, the inspiring power (at least in these parts) of one squat Argentinean’s iconic raised fist.
It makes for a fine record: plaintive, but – like Ballboy’s I Hate Scotland, or anything by Arab Strap – still able to find irresistible romance in the gloomiest recesses of the national character. Just don’t expect it to prove popular down south.
Malcolm Jack, The List, 18 October 2007 [4/5]
The Edinburgh-based trio of Craig Smith, Doug Johnstone and Viv Strachan release a new mini-album less than a year after
album For the Grains of Sand.The Hand of God's title track is about Maradona's handball goal against England in the
1986 World Cup and comes across like a lo-fi lullaby. In fact, the whole album is far more low key than For the Grains of
Sand. Slow beats and bleeps, languid vocals and nursery-like tinkles float across the seven tracks.
The highlight for me is final track, The Water Will Argue With Itself. A mesmerising sonic masterpiece, it's a lullaby
for the senses.
While Doug and Viv's harmonies on songs such as The Good Black Swans and There's Blood in the Back Seat are full of folk
and Americana, the departure to electronica is a huge blissed-out bonus. The Hand of God is out now.
Rick Fulton, Daily Record, 5 October 2007
It feels like a mistake that this album is released at the start of October: it's so perfectly summery, designed to be
listened to in a sunny park or heard from a festival stage. Cute keyboard hooks, twinkles of guitar and vocals that purr
sweetly, The Hand of God is a million miles away from the current keeping-it-real craze, and is all the better for it.
Tracks like the gorgeous Wake Up! Be Tired! and We Hit The Town Drinking are shot through with a gentle sparkle, and with
the vocals being the only natural element among the electronic beats and synthesised instruments, it feels as if you are
listening to something from another galaxy. The tempo rarely rises above an amble, but the effect is relaxing rather than
boring, making for a near perfect dreamlike album. Blissful listening.
Heather Crumley, The Skinny, October 2007 [4/5]
Melancholy East Lothian trio Northern Alliance are a band of many
guises. While their last record hit post-rock peaks, this one is
stripped down to lo-fi basics: drum machines, synths and soft-spoken
vocals. Songs about hope. swans and Maradona.
Malcolm Jack, The Big Issue, October 2007 [4/5]
The Hand of God - the softer side of folk rock executed with subtlety and dreamy vocals. I’m no religious kid, but this
might just rank up there with the kind of religious experience Arcade Fire fans have.
Northern Alliance appeal to the folk/country fanatic I have recently discovered within myself. That’s a pretty scary
discovery for anyone to make, but it’s made that little bit less embarrassing when you consider the awesome strength of
the ‘Americana’ scene at the moment. For some reason, it’s the Scots who do it best, too. It could be all those mountains
and midges, or the fact that Scotland was originally actually part of North America, or excess amounts of whiskey and a
lack of anything better to do.
While Northern Alliance err less on the side of Americana (6 Day Riot, Alberta Cross), they do owe a bit of a debt to the
genre in opener ‘We Hit the Town Drinking’, and ‘There’s Blood in the Back Seat’. The beautiful harmonies between Doug
Johnstone and Viv Strachan are also very much in the style of folk. The subject of the lyrics speaks of honesty and the
sadness of living with and without religion. ‘It’s the Hope that Kills us’ could mean a whole range of things, but in a
religious context, it’s mighty prescient of the state of the world, and all it’s religious fervour. The new thing about
Northern Alliance, though, is their use of drum machines and electronica in conjunction with the aforementioned other
genres/styles.
On paper it sounds a bit wrong to mix such disparate sounds, but on record it actually really works. I have reservations
about the live sound, though, as apparently, the band has never played live (allegedly owing to laziness). I guess that
makes the fact that I’m reviewing this album and raving about it a bit all the more impressive. These days it takes
relentless gigging, demos and A&R men for a band to get spotted. Northern Alliance have passed that by and still succeeded
in making a gorgeously melancholic mini-album of seven tracks of superbly careful folk/indie/electronica hybrid music.
Sarah Laughton, Subba-Cultcha, September 2007 [9/10]